Safaricom shareholders just approved the biggest dividend in the company’s history. At today’s Annual General Meeting, they signed off on a final dividend of KES 1.15 per share for the financial year ended March 31, 2026, bringing the total payout to KES 80.13 billion.
Combined with the KES 0.85 per share interim dividend paid back in March, shareholders will collect KES 2.00 per share for the year, the highest total in Safaricom’s history.
The dividend bump tracks with a strong year for the stock. Safaricom’s share price rose 50.3% over the financial year, pushing the company’s market value to KES 1.10 trillion by end of March.
READ: Kenyans Moved KES 41.7 Trillion Through M-PESA in a Single Year
Since then, the market cap has climbed even further, hitting KES 1.44 trillion in the run-up to this year’s AGM.
Group CEO Dr. Peter Ndegwa called it a defining year, pointing to the company’s 25th anniversary and what he described as its strongest financial performance to date.
Shareholders will need to be on the Register of Members by close of business on August 4, 2026 to qualify. The final dividend gets paid out around September 4, 2026.
Zoom out and the numbers get bigger. Over the past five years, Safaricom shareholders have collected roughly KES 280 billion in total dividends.
Why the Safaricom Dividend Held Steady for 3 Years
This wasn’t always a growth story. For three straight years, Safaricom kept its dividend flat while it absorbed the costs of setting up operations in Ethiopia and dealt with the Ethiopian birr losing value after the country’s 2024 foreign exchange reforms.
That period appears to be ending. The company says its Ethiopian business is now on track to break even in the coming financial year, which helps explain why the dividend jumped this time around.
A Bigger Stake for Vodacom
The AGM also confirmed a change in who owns what. Vodacom Group increased its shareholding in Safaricom this year, acquiring an additional 15% stake through Vodafone Kenya Limited, bought from the Government of Kenya, alongside some internal restructuring.
The new ownership breakdown:
- Vodacom Group: 55%
- Government of Kenya: 20%
- Investing public: 25%
Shareholders also re-elected Edward Okaro to the board and reappointed Ernst & Young as external auditors, plus passed several resolutions needed to formally implement the new ownership structure.
Safaricom says it’s now focused on becoming more than a telecom company as it enters the first year of what it calls Vision 2030.
That includes expanding 4G and 5G coverage, pushing more affordable smartphones into the market, using AI in customer service, and continuing to grow M-PESA and its other financial services.
